It's time to
strap on the leather and descend into the Dante's Inferno-esque
landscape of "8MM". Joel Schumacher, fresh off his slaying of
the "Batman" franchise with "Batman and Robin",
directed this tale of a private dick in search of the pornography
industry's Boogeyman: the snuff film. Also known as "white heat" and
"the real thing," a snuff film is a pornographic film which climaxes
with the actual murder of an actor in the film. This urban legend
was spawned by Allen Shackleton in 1976 when he re-titled the
abysmal Roberta Findlay film "Slaughter" to "Snuff"
and included a new coda which supposedly depicted the actual murder
of an actress in the film. Ever the huckster, Allen Shackleton paid
women to protest outside of the NYC Grind-house theaters playing "Snuff"
to add to the mystique and sinister aura of the film. The F.B.I. and
Manhattan District Attorney's office even investigated the film, but
quickly came to the conclusion that the ending was simply Hollywood
magic rather than a true crime captured on film. Even with this
dismissal of its authenticity as a tangible entity and subsequent
investigative inquiries from law enforcement officials from around
the world that continually disprove this urban myth, the "snuff
film" legend continues to scare and titillate writers, audiences,
and film-makers as the ultimate representative of prurience and
Western decadence.

Private detective
Tom Welles (played by Nicholas Cage) is the definition of vanilla.
Aside from business trips following wayward husbands partying with
their mistresses in Florida, Tom Welles is your basic run of the
mill white middle class suburban God worshiping tax payer. Even
sexually, Tom enjoys "making love" with his wife in the classic
missionary position ( I prefer reverse anal cowgirl myself unless I
wish to give my lady a special treat by giving her the "pink sock",
then it's doggie all the way!) at least until their infant daughter
Cinderella interrupts their intimacy. Tom, ever the caring husband
and doting father, is the one to comfort his baby girl after she
awakens during the night. Tom's only vice is smoking which his wife
Amy, played by Catherine Keener, is quick to try to squelch, but as
the events turn darker and darker she might as light up with Tom. A
surprise phone call from Mr. Longdale, portrayed by "Silence of
the Lambs" Anthony Heald, attorney to recently deceased
billionaire Mr. Christian starts Welles on his journey into the
abyss.

An 8MM reel of
film was discovered in the late Mr. Christian's safe. Mrs. Christian
is convinced the film depicts the actual murder of a scantily clad
teenage girl. Tom Welles tries to assuage Mrs. Christian of her
fears by telling her what she described is called a snuff film and
it is purely an urban legend. Mrs. Christian asks Tom to view the
film, and he agrees to do so. Watching the trailer to 8MM, I
was intrigued by Tom's reaction to watching the snuff film. The way
his eyes registered absolute shock and revulsion at the onscreen
atrocity playing before his eyes. My mind asked what could a grown
man watch that could cause him such discomfort? In this world of
Ogrish and other real gore websites as well as increasingly
realistic special effects what level of pure horror could a "white
heat" film achieve? Pornography is becoming increasingly harder at
its extreme edges, so a film simply portraying a bash and slash does
not seem to be brutal enough even though it is real. We need
degradation/sadism/dismemberment with a dash of necrophilia tossed
in for some kind of jolt to the jaded masses. So, what did the snuff
film at the center of "8MM" show?

The most
compelling scenes in "8MM" involve Amy Morton as Janet
Matthews, mother of the slain snuff victim Mary Ann Matthews. Amy
Morton creates a heartbreaking performance layered with pain,
sorrow, grief, and regret. In Janet Matthews' eyes, I saw the pain
caused by having a child disappear. The question of knowing the
worst versus not knowing the best comes up, and it is an incredibly
complex question posed by Tom Welles to Janet Matthews. Her need to
know seems to supersede the unknown happiness her daughter might be
experiencing, but she knows in her heart this is not so. When Tom
reveals the fate of her daughter later on in the film, Amy Morton's
Janet lets out a sobbing declaration of her love for her daughter
that is so real it tore my heart out.

"8MM" is
not all tears and sorrow, though. I mean a movie about snuff films
has to have some light hearted moments too wouldn't you think? This
is where Max California comes in wryly played by Joaquin Phoenix.
Sarcasm aside, "8MM" should have been a downward spiral into
fetishistic nihilism along the lines of screen writer Andrew Kevin
Walker's previous film "Seven." However, Joel Shumacher tried to
lighten the heavy handedness of Walker's script by adding touches of
humor to the dialogue. Case in point, when Max takes Welles to an
illegal porn flea market where a guard stationed at the basement
door asks Max, "Are you a law enforcement agent or in any way
affiliated with law enforcement?" Max responds, "Fuck off, Larry."
Larry unperturbed proceeds to ask Welles the same question. Instead
of a simple, "No." which would indicate the seriousness of the
situation Joel Schumacher goes for the easy laugh by having Tom echo
Max's response.

There are other
memorable characters that populate "8MM" besides Max
California. Stick, whose name accurately describes his physical
being, enjoys jacking up his faux snuff film price simply to piss
his customer Welles off all the while twisting his own nipple with
glee. Eddie Poole is one of the sleaziest characters I have seen
onscreen in a long time. James Gandolfini's performance oozes with
slime and grease. His best line is, "She was just a fucking piece of
pussy. She was nothing. Girl like that disappears no one gives a
shit except you." When Tom has a gun in Eddie's mouth Gandolfini
chews the scene by tonguing the gun daring Tom to "Pull the fucking
trigger, you faggot!" Our next player is snuff auteur Dino Velvet.
Peter Stormare is the Devil incarnate as Dino Velvet, a porn
director that shoots only on film and also a mean crossbow. His
office looks like a Goth dungeon with nude plastic dolls adorning
the black walls as his porno-artsy film is playing on a monitor. The
star of his films is a man known only as Machine. Machine loves his
work, especially when he killed little Mary Ann Matthews. Just
describing her murder to Tom Welles in the climax gets him hard as
granite.

"8MM"
should have been a gritty look at the illegal porn underground and
an exploration of the ogre known as the snuff film. "8MM"
should be beyond Hollywood crowd pleasing because the subject itself
is repellent. On top of this, snuff films even as of this moment do
not exist, so the subject should have been treated as a horror of
sorts rather than the sappy way it is treated in "8MM". David
Fincher understood "Seven," while Joel Schumacher wanted to create a
morality tale about the evils of pornography. "Take care of your
daughters folks or they might be lured away by evil pornographers
who will make them the stars of snuff films!" seems to be this
film's message. The ending punctuates this sentiment with its hokey
letter telling Tom everything he did was OK, and that Janet's life
can now continue on its yellow brick road to new happiness and
fulfillment. "This is all wrong," as Dino Velvet says during his
demise. 8MM should be a depressing journey into the darkness of
humanity where no soul can ever escape. Instead, 8MM is a half
measure with some parts being dark while others remind the audience
it is still a Hollywood vision of Hell.

Now, you want to
know what the "Ultimate Atrocity" is? OK, here it is so brace
yourself...

A nun is
kidnapped, tortured, and raped until she becomes pregnant and then
held for nine months. The nun is strapped into a gynocological chair
and has a speculum inserted into her anus spreading as wide as it
can go. The child is visciously torn out of the nun's womb via a
nasty C-section. The screaming newborn is impaled onto the sadist
erect prick anally and then rammed into the nun's dilated anus. Her
screams echo throughout the chamber, and she let's out a torrent of
fecal matter all over her newborn cum living flesh anal dildo. The
sadist pulls the baby dildo out of her anus and rubs its head all
over her lips and face. Feces and blood cause the nun to vomit and
the process continues some more. Finally, the sadist pulls out a
knife and severs the baby's head as he climaxes into its little body
with a fountain of blood spurting onto the now dead nude nun's body.
This is "The Ultimate Atrocity". As STICK would say, "sickest shit
you will ever see."

The DVD extras include a commentary track by Joel Schumacher
which did not delve as deep into the snuff film myth as I
would have liked. Other than this it was an OK overview of
the production. Included also in the extras is a making of
featurette which looks like it came straight from the HBO
"Making of 8MM" featurette. We also get the film's trailer
which I absolutely LOVE.

WHICH FILM IS THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY FROM? IS THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY FROM AUNDERGROUND HORROR FILM OR SOMETHING? OR IS THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY FROM AEXPLOITATION FILM PERHAPS? IF ANYBODY KNOWS WHICH SPECIFIC FILM THE ULTIMATEATROCITY IS FROM THEN PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN A E-MAIL RESPONSE BECAUSE I WOULDLIKE TO KNOW WHICH FILM THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY IS FROM.

WHICH FILM IS THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY FROM. A UNDERGROUND HORROR FILM ORSOMETHING? OR IS THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY FROM A EXPLOITATION FILM PERHAPS? IFANBODY KNOWS WHICH SPECIFIC FILM THE ULTIMATE ATROCITY IS FROM THEN PLEASE LETME KNOW IN AN E-MAIL RESPONSE BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHICH FILM THEULTIMATE ATROCITY IS FROM.